In Singapore 2008 would be remembered as a year with more than its regular share of memorable events. In June the city-state recorded its highest population level ever, at nearly 4.84 million. In August citizens rejoiced when three Singaporean table tennis players won the women’s team silver medal at the Beijing Olympic Games. They were Singapore’s first Olympic medalists since 1960. In another first, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delayed by 24 hours the telecast of his annual state of the nation address rather than compete for viewers with the televised final match. The following month the island republic became the site of auto racing’s first Formula 1 Grand Prix night race.

On a more controversial note, February saw the escape of Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari from the Whitley Road Detention Centre. It was the first time that anyone had escaped from the centre, which housed those detained under the Internal Security Act. A national uproar ensued, and there were calls for the resignation of the home affairs minister and for a detailed accounting of the event. A commission of inquiry was set up and reported its findings to Parliament in April.

Equally controversial was the Ministry of Health’s introduction of a law, likely to be passed in 2009, to allow the monetary “reimbursement” of kidney transplant donors. The compensation would cover the donor’s costs but would not be enough to induce donations.

Inflation surged in the first half of the year to a peak of almost 7%, a 25-year high. As the prices of basic foodstuffs such as rice and cooking oil escalated sharply, some hoarding began to take place. By the later part of the year, however, recession had replaced inflation as the biggest worry. Singapore became the first country in Southeast Asia to record a technical recession (defined as two fiscal quarters of contraction) in 2008; its extremely open and trade-dependent economy made it vulnerable to economic slumps in the United States and Europe. The government responded with characteristic swiftness and on November 21 announced a S$2.3 billion (about U.S.$1.5 billion) package to help save jobs and ease access to credit for companies. The measures were also characteristically hard-headed; grants for affected workers would be conditional on the workers’ enrollment in courses to learn new skills. Even then the grants would be awarded on a discretionary, case-by-case basis.